The Coast Mountains School District is moving toward a policy shift to allow alcohol sales at public events held at the REM Lee Theatre in Terrace and at the Mount Elizabeth Theatre which is located in Kitimat.
The move was initiated by the theatre coordinators at both facilities to accommodate various user group requests, and went through the first reading by school trustees at their December 2015 meeting.
Any such change “enables us to rent our theatres to organizations who wish to serve alcoholic beverages during intermissions,” said secretary treasurer Alanna Cameron in response to a question. The policy would be in place for all adult-sanctioned events, not school district events, and would result in additional outside revenues for the school district, she said.
The amended policy proposal is being circulated to the school district’s various groups with which it works for their responses.
Those responses would then be reviewed and returned to the trustees for discussion, final reading and then a vote to adopt or not.
Cameron said a policy permitting alcohol sales could take hold as early as March of this year. The board has given approval to some events to serve alcohol in the past on a case-by-case basis, Cameron says, but if the amendment goes ahead, they will no longer need to give that approval each time. Board approval is needed now because prior to Dec. 2013, theatres were included in board’s policy on community use of facilities and grounds, which said no alcohol could be used on any school site.
